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My brother phoned today in some distress. After a few quick questions it became clear his PC had likely died. Checking in person later in the day it became evident that either the power supply, motherboard, or possibly the CPU was the victim.

Now this is a 4+ year old Dell that has served him well, so doesn’t really owe him anything. But wow, what a price we pay for becoming so dependent on the Universal Tool that the PC has become! He needs it replaced, and replaced quickly. Without it he isn’t really in business.

My normal inclination to replace the damaged parts was unfortunately not a viable option. The first reason being that the machine is so old (and was so low spec when built), that sourcing equivalent parts proved difficult. The second reason being the time it would take to establish what was and wasn’t working once we had the parts, and trying to get refunds on the bits it would likely turn out we didn’t need.

So now I finally understand why otherwise seemingly intelligent people purchase PC’s from high street stores like PC World.

The ease with which he could save 10’s if not 100’s of £’s by shopping online is balanced by the ability to be able to walk out 1 hour later with a working PC. That is obviously worth the extra money to some people.

In the end though he ordered a replacement from Dell. A “better the devil you know” scenario. Reasonable value for money and a reasonable expectation of getting at least another 4 years out of it.

But I’m still left wondering how impulse buyers and business people who will loose money if they don’t have a machine right now, are a big enough market to keep the likes of PC World in business?

Yet more proof (if it were even needed) that people really DO NOT BUY ON PRICE ! (even though they believe they do).